Rockets' Red Glare Returns This July

Thanks to a new committee, the Independence Day celebration will again include a fireworks display.

The spark has been passed to a new generation.

After skipping a year with no Fourth of July fireworks, some volunteers in Mathews County will again fill the sky with rockets' multicolored glare.

With two catches: the fireworks will be on the other side of the county and will come on July 2, a Saturday.

The show was dropped last year because the longtime organizers decided they were getting too old, and nobody else came forward to take it over.

The Rotary Club flirted with doing it but decided it shouldn't be their thing.

It's now the aim of the newly-anointed Mathews Fireworks Committee, said Kevin Mitchem, who founded the committee with two of his colleagues at Bay & River Real Estate -- Mike Brown and Alex Hudgins.

It started with Hudgins and quickly grew to include others in the community, said Mitchem.

"We took it to the Board of Supervisors last month, and now it's an official county committee," said Mitchem, who is also a supervisor. Mitchem's board colleague, Charles Ingram, had been one of the original organizers of the fireworks until last year.

Brown said two obstacles last year that don't exist now are location and the actual conducting of the fireworks show.

Hurricane Isabel had destroyed the Islander, a motel and restaurant on Gwynn's Island where people would gather to watch the fireworks.

Besides Ingram and his assistant, Elwood Everington, no one else had the license or know-how to send rockets into the sky over Hill's Bay.

This year, said Brown, professionals will handle the show. The Williams Wharf site will allow parking at remote lots for people who can then ride free buses to the waterside, said Mitchem.

Also this year there will be more than fireworks.

The committee is calling the event the Heritage Fair and Fireworks Festival. It starts at 3 p.m. and will include a food tent, games for children and live music.

Various community organizations and churches are sponsoring concessions as a way to raise money, said Mitchem.

"If we pull it off, and everything goes well, I hope we can make it an annual thing," he said. *

WANT TO GO?

The Heritage Fair and Fireworks Festival will be held on July 2 at Williams Wharf. *